


Book Marks

by Mersheeple



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hogwarts, Post-War, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:15:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25610443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersheeple/pseuds/Mersheeple
Summary: Now working in the Hogwarts Library, Hermione Granger finds a book with notes in the margins and starts a conversation via a simple parchment. Who is her mysterious messenger and will she want to know everything about him once she finds out who he is?
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 37
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [allthingszuko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthingszuko/gifts).



> This comes from a prompt that I took a lot of liberties with.
> 
> Special mention to Q_Drew, Oi and Chelsea for help with the title! <3

The first time she had noticed the writing she was horrified. Who wrote notes in a _library_ book? That just wasn’t done. Obviously, some entitled, selfish brat who…she paused, reading the words again…who apparently was rather intelligent; the person had made a note about another method that would, potentially, cut the brewing time of the potion in half. The potion was a stamina potion, particularly one for increased male stamina. What it was doing in a book in the school library she didn’t know but, she supposed, it could be one of the only…indiscreet potions in the book.

She pursed her lips, confused how to proceed and then, with a soft laugh, tore a piece of parchment from her bag and wrote her own note, tucking it into the book.

_Does this actually work?_

Hermione Granger, jokingly nicknamed Mistress of the Stacks, had worked in the Hogwarts Library for a year. It felt strange that she was working in the library after gaining her Mastery in Ancient Runes over five years ago. After completing her Mastery she had worked in the Ministry Archives as their Primary Ancient Language Specialist, often abbreviated to PALS. The boys, of course, had teased her for being PALS with the Archives but it had all been in jest.

She had loved the job but, after four years, she had reorganised and created spells in the department which, unfortunately and rather short-sightedly, made her job obsolete. They could hire two base level employees, and still have money left over, for the cost of her salary. They had apologised and offered her a position in the Ministry library but the pay cut was enough that she would not have been able to afford her flat. Minerva’s job offer asking her to take over for Irma Pince was an absolute godsend. Of course, how Minerva knew that she would be needing another job at short notice, particularly one that came with somewhere to live, was anybody’s guess. Hermione rather thought a certain Auror whose name rhymed with Barry Trotter might be responsible.

Hermione returned the last of the books to their rightful places and smiled around the library. She glanced at the clock behind her desk and smiled. Nine thirty. Just the right time to set her wards and head to her rooms for a long hot soak in the bath with a nice book and a glass of wine. Perfect. She set her wards without a second thought and left the library, pleased with the peacefulness of the corridors and the smell of castle, a smell she could not describe but that she had missed when working at the Archives without realising one could actually miss a smell.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes from a not-so-strange stranger...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This amused me...so have chapter 2 as well!

She entered the library a little after seven in the morning, dispelling her wards and opening the curtains. A charm of her own devising freshened the air without damaging the books and she looked around, casting a few small lighting charms in areas that were darkened, areas where students liked to hide and make mischief. Or just make out. She walked towards her desk and frowned. She was always very careful to make sure that every single book was back in its place before she left the library. This one in particular, she knew she had returned to its place. It was the same book that had been written in previously. And there, tucked into the page, was the note she had written. She frowned, casting _Hominum Revelio_ immediately but, as she expected, she was alone. She picked up the book and noticed the scratchy penmanship of someone else on her parchment.

**It works but the brew is slightly less potent.**

She laughed, shaking her head, and wondering who could possibly have got past her wards. She knew it had to be a Professor, and she recognised the writing, but she couldn’t for the life of her put her finger on who it might be. She picked up her quill and left a further note on the same piece of parchment, filing the book away immediately with a spell she reserved for when she was feeling completely lazy.

_Why would one want a less potent brew? Surely that defeats the purpose entirely?_

Her first interruption came at eight that morning, the arrival of a student who seemed almost desperate to find a book but seemed to have no idea where to look for it.

“Mr Abernathy! What, precisely, are you looking for?” She never shouted in the library but had found that certain students, particularly the younger Hufflepuffs like Owen Abernathy, needed a firm hand and even firmer voice.

“Oh, hello Mistress Granger, I was looking for Wonders of Magic Defensive Arts by Judson Hoganis. I’m sure I left a copy on the desk I was working on yesterday but it’s not here.” She blinked slowly as she tried to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

“Well, firstly, Mr Abernathy, I think you will find that if you leave books out overnight, they will always get filed back into the shelves unless you check them out. And secondly, I don’t think you will find a book on Defence in the Herbology section. Follow me.” She walked away, knowing that the boy would follow her. How a Second Year could still not know his way around the library she didn’t understand, especially with Madam Pince’s way of teaching the library. She found the book he was looking for and handed it over, her new system for checking out books causing a wash of magic to mark on her files that he had borrowed the book.

“It is due back in two weeks Mr Abernathy. Not after.” She shook her head as he ran out, obviously desperate to get to his first class before the bell. She moved back to the desk and frowned. The book was back. Somehow, someone else had entered the library, picked up the book from the shelf and then just _abandoned_ it on her desk. She opened the book to the note she knew she would find and laughed out loud at the person’s response.

**Children. The old and infirm. Argus Filch.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!, have another chapter of this little story :)

She hadn’t known how to respond to that comment and had laughed on and off about it for hours. She had finally just left a very short note that night, tucked between the pages of a different book on the same shelf. This time, she had chosen a book with no notes from him. Oh, she had worked out who he was of course. That had been obvious once she paid a moment’s attention.

_If rumours are to be believed, this is the preferred potion among the staff…_

She had slipped her note into the pages of the Potions book, marking the page of the Cure for Hangovers. It was an older version of the Hangover Potion, a weaker version that did not include the juniper berries that had improved it considerably, but it got her point across, nonetheless.

She had looked forward to finding a note the next morning and had been gratified to find the new book back on her desk, the slip of paper in the book now with a new note added, along with annotations on the potion that, as Librarian, she resented. As a scholar and interested party, she loved that his notes were so freely given.

**Only Rolanda. She and Sybill currently have a competition for how many days they can arrive to their classes pissed in a row. Sybill had a head start.**

She giggled again and wondered if she should respond immediately. After all, he was a stickler for punctuality. Almost as much as she was. Then again, she had no idea if he would come into the library before it closed. He seemed to avoid her, she wondered if he even knew he was doing it sometimes. She left him a note and hoped that he would understand what she was suggesting.

_You provide the good stuff and so will I…_


End file.
